In my last blog I wrote about a Twitter exchanged I had with @SamGipp, a Baptist “preacher” who thinks that it is his Christian duty to hate Muslims, political progressives, gays, lesbians, immigrants, and “perverts”—a catchall phrase he likes to use to describe anyone who doesn’t look like him or live like he does. He would not use this word to describe a president who gets off on stomping on the downtrodden or having sex with porn stars or grabbing women by their pussies or participating in extramarital affairs.
Sam Gipp lives in a very twisted world and practices a very twisted logic. According to his way of thinking, Republicans cannot be perverts, no matter what sort of behavior they engage in. It’s only political progressives who are capable of perversion. If I think about his reasoning for a moment, I see that the idea of perversion is not tied to the sort of acts or behavior a person engages in; instead, it’s about who it is that is acting. If a political conservative engages in sexually predatory behavior, then such behavior is acceptable because of the perpetrator’s political affiliation. As we all know, conservatives are godly people and thus incapable of behaving wrongly. Godliness, therefore, nullifies the predation. This is circular reasoning at its finest.
On the other hand, if a progressive acts predatorily, then no one should be surprised because liberals are just inherently sinful people. In other words, political conservatives can do no wrong because they are children of god, and even if they do stray away from the straight and narrow, it’s just because the devil made them do so. Progressives, on the other hand, can do no right because they are devils themselves. Because liberals are inherently evil, everything they do becomes sinful.
Politicized evangelicals of Sam Gipp’s sort have really shown, in a multitude of ways, that the Bible has become subordinate to the Gospel of Conservatism. And in the age of Trump, the Gospel of Conservativism looks frightening like the Gospel of Authoritarianism or The Gospel of Fascism.
By the way, Madeleine Albright, a woman who knows something about politics, international relations, and fascism, has just written a Book entitled Fascism: A Warning. When asked, in a recent televised interview who she was trying to warn, she spoke up very clearly and said, “Americans.”
Gipp, the asshole, has been tweeting again and he’s really got my dander up this time. He sent out an obnoxious and hateful tweet about Muslims. The gist of his posting is there is no such thing as a peaceful Muslim and that they should be wiped off the face of the earth.
Does he really think that Jesus would be in favor of his followers committing genocide? I’d like to ask Gipp where, in “The Good Book,” genocide is advocated.
Being married to an extraordinarily kind Muslim and having lived among them for approximately fifteen years, I responded to Gipp by tweeting, in effect, that his hatefulness would help him find his way to the front of the line of those being ushered into hell.
I know this was harsh, but sometimes harshness must be met with harshness.
He then responded by telling me that unless I had nail holes in my hands and feet, I had no business telling him who would, and who would not, be going to hell.
I responded by asking him to show me his nail holes—I actually asked him to post photos of them. I said that since he always seemed to pass judgment on others and thus enjoyed playing at being god, he surely had the marks of Christ on his body.
It’s been two days now and he hasn’t responded. I think it’s because the cat’s got his tongue.
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